The Second Industrial Revolution 747electric power. In Europe, as in the United States, the first results of the elec
tric age were particularly striking in heavy industry—for example in electro
chemistry (aluminum) and metallurgy (electric furnaces). The burgeoning
German electrical manufacturing industry helped Germany to challenge
Britain for European manufacturing primacy.
The sewing machine, developed by the American Isaac Singer (1811 —
1875), began to be found in industry and homes in the 1850s, well before
the use of electricity became common. The mechanization of the produc
tion of ready-made garments rapidly extended consumer markets, setting
styles and reducing the price of clothing. But the impact of the sewing
machine also demonstrated continuities in industrial work. For the garment
industry—attracting Jewish immigrants to Paris and, above all, New York—
remained largely tied to home work, as well as to sweatshops. Women, and
some men, too, turned out ready-made cloaks and dresses. Machines that
could do band stitching, make buttonholes, or embroider led to a further
specialization of labor. Singer marketed his machine as a device that would
liberate women from tedious work. But the sewing machine also bound
many women to the hectic pace of piecework, and to payments for the
machine itself, usually purchased on time-payment plans.
By 1900, other electrically powered household appliances—refrigerators,
fans, and vacuum cleaners—were generally available to those families that
could afford to have their houses wired for electricity and could pay for the
appliances.
The development of chemistry also brought lasting advances. In Ger
many, university chemical research and teaching developed precociously.
German companies benefited from synthetic organic chemistry, manufac
turing dyes, soaps, and pharmaceuticals, further improving sanitation and
public health. Fritz Haber (1868-1934) discovered the nitrogen-fixing pro
cess, by which atmospheric nitrogen could be converted into compounds.
By 1913, he and his colleagues were able to transform ammonia into nitric
acid by oxidation, which made possible the industrial production of fertil
izers and explosives. Advances in chemistry helped transform agriculture,
the textile industry, and engineering.
In Western Europe, powerful industrial giants began to emerge. The
development of economic cartels dealt a blow to the liberal era of free trade.
Cartels are formal agreements by which competitors within the same indus
try protect profits by sharing markets, regulating output, fixing prices, and
taking other measures to limit competition. Cartels permitted a few large
companies to dominate production and distribution, enabling heavy indus
tries to protect themselves during periods of falling prices and high unem
ployment by controlling production and setting prices. In Germany, mining
cartels set production goals and kept prices artificially high. In France and
Great Britain, informal agreements among industrialists achieved virtually
the same results as formalized cartels. The return to protective tariffs aided